UNDERSTANDING THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE OLIVE TREE AND ANOINTING OIL

By Joseph Prince

In the Old Testament, God ordained the anointing oil to bless

His people. But what can new covenant believers use it for
today? Joseph Prince shares from the Bible how the anointing
oil speaks of Christ and His finished work. Understanding this
will give you access to Gods supernatural provision of health,
wholeness and prosperity!

The Bible mentions in many places the grain, wine and oil.
For years, I had wondered why the Lord always mentions
these three items together. So I asked the Lord and I thank
Him that the search is over.

Through the grain, wine and oil, we can receive by grace, not
by accomplishing or striving, all the benefits of Jesus. Man ate
his way into trouble in the Garden of Eden. By the same
token, you can eat your way back into Gods blessings today.

Seeing Christ In The Grain, Wine And Oil

The grain and wine represent the Holy Communion, which

speaks of the broken body of Jesus and the blood that He
shed. To make bread, you take the wheat or grain, then crush
and beat it to make dough. Then, you punch the dough and
put it into the fiery heat for it to become bread. Thats what
happened to our Lord Jesus on the crossHe became our
Bread of Life.
To get wine, the grapes not only have to be plucked, they also
need to be crushed and trodden upon. Likewise, our Lord
Jesus was trodden upon by the judgment of God and He
became new wine for all of us.

Olive oil comes from the olive fruit. But when you press the
fruit real hard, you wont find oil, only a white sap. Also, the
fruit tastes very bitter. To get the oil, the fruit and its seed
have to be crushed by a great weight in an olive press. The
crushing also removes the bitterness. In the same manner,
Jesus was crushed under the burden and weight of our sins,
and under the judgment of a holy God. He was crushed to
become the anointing oil that heals us today.

Ordained By God

God is bringing the church to a place where we see the

importance of the holy anointing oil. Gods way is always for
us to act on what we can do in the natural, and He will
accomplish in the supernatural what we cannot. Using the
anointing oil is biblical and ordained by God. So dont let
people tell you that you are superstitious for using the
anointing oil.

James 5:1415
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the
church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in
the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the
sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed
sins, he will be forgiven.
It was a practice in the early church to use the anointing oil on
the sick. So when the elders of the church visited the sick,
they anointed the sick person with oil in the name of the Lord.
And the prayer of faith will save the sick shows us clearly
that this is not a superstition, but something done in faith. How
do you have faith? faith comes by hearing, and hearing by
the word of God. (Romans 10:17) So once you have a
revelation about what the Bible teaches on a subject, faith for
that area will come.

Fresh Oil Of The New Covenant

Lets look at Psalm 92, a psalm for the Sabbath. In verse 10, it
says, But my horn You have exalted like a wild ox; I have
been anointed with fresh oil. God expects us to have fresh oil
because when oil gets stagnant, it becomes stale.

The word fresh in Hebrew is raanan which means green.

Notice that extra virgin olive oil is green. Green speaks of
newness or youth. So the oil has to be of the new covenant
because the oil of the old covenant is stale.

The old covenant tells you that you must obey God before He
can heal your body. Some people believe that and their faith
becomes stale. They will slowly stay away from God because
of wrong believing.

But do you know that the new covenant doesnt teach that? It
teaches that despite your failures, God will heal you. As seen
earlier in James 5:15, even if a person has committed sins, he
need not feel disqualified because God will forgive his sins
through the prayer of faith. Once sin, the biggest hindrance,
has been removed, what is there to stop us from receiving
from God?

After we have prayed over the olive oil, it becomes holy

anointing oil. Holy means set apart for Gods purposes. It
also means separated fromdarkness into light, lack into
abundance and sickness into wholeness. Thus, the anointing
oil is no longer just natural oil. The next verse says:

Psalm 92:11
My eye also has seen my desire on my enemies; my ears
hear my desire on the wicked who rise up against me.

When you are anointed with green or fresh oil, its going to
affect your eyes and ears. Your eyes will see victory and your
ears will hear victory. So the wicked or your enemies will not
prosper, but you will!

Before you read the Bible, you can tell the Lord, I am
anointing my eyes, Lord. Let me see You afresh in the
Scriptures. Then, you will find that the Bible comes alive for
you. You are relying on the Holy Spirit to give you revelations,
to guide you into all truths, and not trusting in your own
intellect.

Yokes Destroyed, Burdens Lifted

Isaiah 10:27
It shall come to pass in that day that his burden will be taken
away from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and
the yoke [satanic bondage] will be destroyed because of the
anointing oil.

Sometimes, you feel stressed and are full of worries. After a

quarrel or moment of strife, you sense a weight on your
shoulders. The word his in the above verse refers to the
Assyrians, Israels enemies then. Today, it represents the
spirit of the anti-Christ or the devil who seeks to oppress you.
An ox has a yoke around its neck to pull the cart. Likewise,
the devil wants to put a yoke on your neck to pull you
wherever he wants you to go. For instance, if you are
addicted to nicotine, the devil tells you, You cannot but
smoke. Ive got you where I want you.

But the thing that can destroy this yoke is the anointing oil.
You may say, Pastor Prince, the oil represents the power of
the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Holy Spirit is 100 per cent involved
here. But in this context, God says to use the anointing oil.
Then, the power of the Holy Spirit will destroy every satanic
bondage in your life.

Notice that the yoke will be destroyed and not broken.

There is a difference between these two words. When
something is broken, it can be repaired. But when something
is destroyed, it is beyond repair. Gods anointing oil will
destroy every satanic bondage in your life beyond repair!

Restoration Of Time And Family Life

When the devil wants to attack you, one of the ways he

comes against you is to steal from you. In Deuteronomy 28,
there is a very interesting principle to observe under the
portion of the curses.

Deuteronomy 28:3840
You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in,
for the locust shall consume it. You shall plant vineyards and
tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather
the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. You shall have olive
trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint
yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off.

The seed here refers to grain and in the vineyards, you

have wine. Notice that the devil is out to consume your grain
and wine, so he sends the locusts and worms. He is also out
to consume your oil.

Lets look at the next verse to find out why the devil wants to
take away these things from your life.

Deuteronomy 28:41
You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be
yours; for they shall go into captivity.

Whenever there is a lack of the grain, wine and oil, your family
life is affected. You may have children whom you love deeply,
but when they grow up, you lose them. Mixing with bad
company, they become captive to drinking, partying and drug
addictions.

But God has prepared a way out for you.

Joel 2:2324
for He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will
cause the rain to come down for youthe former rain, and the
latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full
of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.

The former rain in Hebrew refers to a teacher of

righteousness. The reason God gives you a teacher of
righteousness is so that the church, your home and your
workplace will be full of grain, and overflowing with new wine
and oil. And the next verse says:

Joel 2:25
So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has
eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the
chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.

Here, the chewing locust refers to the worm. The King

James Bible uses the word palmerworm. When your life is
full of the grain, wine and oil, God will restore to you the years
that the locusts and worms have eaten. Some of you may
say, Pastor Prince, once the years have passed, they are
gone. But the Creator of time says that He will restore to you
the years that have been wasted!

Revealing The Beauty Of The Olive Tree

When you study the olive tree, you will be blessed because
every part of the tree has a meaning. Today, when you go to
the Garden of Gethsemane in Israel, you will find really old
olive trees with gnarled trunks. Interestingly, the trunk of an
olive tree is hollow unlike most trees.
Why is the olive tree trunk hollow? The olive tree represents
each of us and God wants us to remember always that we are
created by God with this purposeto contain Him only, not
ourselves or the devil.

People who dont fulfill or refuse to accept Gods purpose for

them will feel empty inside. They can do many things to fill
themselves uplive for pleasure, earn lots of money, get
whatever they desirebut they will end up feeling empty. You
can even see the emptiness if you look real close into their
eyes. But when you look at those who are full of God, there is
a fire in their eyes and a spring in their steps everywhere they
go.

In the Bible, God describes His people Israel as the Green

Olive Tree. (Jeremiah 11:16) We, who were formerly
Gentiles, have been grafted into this olive tree. (Romans
11:1325) The olive tree lives long, so expect to live a good,
long life. Have you wondered how the olive tree lives long?

Benefits Of The Olive Oil Released Through The

Cross

A few years ago when I was in Capernaum, the hometown of

Jesus, I saw an olive press. The guide explained that olive
berries were put in the press and crushed with a huge
millstone. The first press produces extra virgin olive oil, which
is used to light the Jewish temple. The oil from the second
press is used for medicine, while the oil from the third or last
press is used for making soap.
At that moment, the Holy Spirit revealed to me, Thats what
happened to Jesus in Gethsemane. Gethsemane, which
means oil press, was where Jesus was first pressed in a
time of darkness (Luke 22:53), so that we will always be in the
light and walk in the light.

The light makes you see what othersyour competitors,

professors, scientistscannot see in the natural. It is the Holy
Spirit that gives you spiritual enlightenment. For instance,
people saw David as a shepherd boy. But Samuel, under the
anointing of the Holy Spirit, saw a king in David. So the
anointing oil will cause you to see how God sees. And when
you see how He sees, you will enjoy what He enjoys.

The second press took place after Jesus was brought from
Gethsemane and scourged. Jesus is our medicine because
by His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

A member in our church told me that he had eczema on his

left thigh for some time. He had applied all kinds of medication
on his thigh, but the eczema did not subside. When I first
preached about the anointing oil, he bought some olive oil and
prayed over it. Then, he started applying the oil on a daily
basis for a week. Today, he is healed of eczema!

The last press, in which the oil is used for cleansing,

happened at the cross. Jesus was crushed under the fiery
indignation of a holy righteous God, suffering the judgment
and penalties for our sins. His blood has cleansed us of our
sins.

Olive oil in the natural has no effect on you unless you eat or
use it. But when you pray over your bottle of natural olive oil in
Jesus name, God sets it apart and it becomes holy anointing
oil. Use the oil for Gods glory and see His miracles,
prosperity and restoration in your life!

Copyright Joseph Prince, 2008. All rights reserved.